Toddlers and 2-Year Old Programming
"I'm just a kid, I have a lot of stuff to do yet."
~ Clint Eastwood
Our commitment to quality care continues in our Toddler and 2-year old rooms. Children at this age are eager learners who energetically interact with materials and people. We at the center realize that an environment and curriculum that encourages each child's growing need of independence is a basis for developing and mastering life skills and a positive self esteem. By playing in both large and small groups, these children will learn valuable social skills needed to effectively interact with others. While engaging in fun activities toddlers and 2-year olds will discover their likes and talents and will be exposed to fundamentals such as: colors, shapes, self-help skills, as well as social and language development.
Children under the age of 2 years old will have a notebook system for direct communication with their teacher(s). In this notebook the teacher will log the daily activities, feedings and the rest times of your child. Parents will be asked to list pertinent information that will ensure the individualized schedule of each child is up-to-date, to inculde but not limited to: the last time your child ate, slept and was changed, as well as mood and sleeping patterns of the night before. Parents of 2-year olds will find daily information posted in the Parent Area of the room.
Arts for Kids has an individualized program for the needs of children ages of
6-weeks to 2-years old.
All children will have individual contact and attention through feeding, diapering and learning experience.
Each child will follow their individual routine of feeding and sleeping set by their home environment.
The children will be provided with equipment to fit their educational development and creative expression appopriate to their age level.
Daily communication with parents:
~ A notebook for each child under two years of age will be sent home with parents summarizing child's activities.
Parents will bring back notebook with information for teachers.
Staff will ensure that throughout the day infants will be moved into different activities.
Potty Training Policy
If parents and the center are in agreement that a child is developmentally ready, Arts for Kids will begin to encourage potty training at age 2.
At 2-1/2 years old age, regular potty training is part of our daily program and routine. Children will be encouraged to wear pull-ups or underwear (depending on progress) and have plenty of extra pull-ups or underwear on hand. They will be taken to the bathroom every 2 hours (possibly more often at the beginning). If a child is wearing underwear, they will be put in a pull-up or diaper for naps, unless completely trained. We will use lots of praise for a "job well done" and lots of understanding when "accidents happen" if a child has a rough day.
Sometimes potty training can happen overnight and sometimes it can be a long process - we just need to have a lot of patience.
January 2020 News!
Toddler I
Dear Parents,
We had a busy month in December! We hope that everyone had a nice,
relaxing and fun Christmas! We also hope you enjoyed your Christmas gift from your child!
We had some sensory experiences playing with packing peanuts (snow), paper penguins, shovels and small Christmas stockings. Our friends put the pretend snow in the stockings...great eye-hand coordination. We painted on penguins and painted on little evergreen trees using Christmas colors.
We read many holiday stories and shook jingle bells and sang “We Wish You A Merry Christmas!” We danced to a cute singing penguin. Our friends are great dancers!
In the month of January we will do many activities with the winter theme.
Hopefully it won’t be too cold.
We want to welcome Carter to our room! It is his first childcare and our friends have been working hard to welcome him!
We made cute penguin cookies and frosted Christmas cut outs and put sprinkles on them! They were yummy!
We hope everyone has a Happy & Healthy New Year!
Ms. Karen
Ms. Karen
Toddler II
Happy New Year!
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.
December was a fun month with all the Christmas activities.
We painted trees, candy canes and reindeer. We put ball ornaments on our sticky tree, picked out and named objects in our stocking and we practiced matching Christmas items. We also welcomed Winter.
It was so cold! We played with winter animals in ice cubes.
In the New Year we continue the theme with snow, snow flakes and snowmen.
January can also be a month of being stuck inside because of the cold. So we will get up and move indoors. Then it is Bedtime Week…dressing up in
pajamas and reading bedtime stories.
Have a great month!
Ms. Janice & Ms. Tina
2’s I
Happy New Year!
Our themes last month were: Gingerbread/Hot Chocolate, Holiday Treats, Christmas for 2 weeks, and New Year’s. The kids liked having a gingerbread cookie and some hot cocoa with marshmallows. They also had a lot of fun making their mom’s and dad’s Christmas gifts!
They had lots of fun dressing up for the twelve days of Christmas.
Our themes this month are: Snowmen, Winter/Winter Clothing and Winter Animals.
I have a new assistant, Maddie. She has worked with the 2’s before and
loves this age.
Parents please make sure that your kiddo has extra clothes, hats, mittens, snow pants, and boots. Also, please make sure to check your child’s take-home folder for any artwork or important papers.
If you have any questions or concerns about your child or what we are working on in the classroom please feel free to ask.
Thank you,
Ms. Ashley & Ms. Maddie
2’s II
Happy New Year!
Cannot believe it’s already a new year, crazy how time flies when you’re having fun!
Last month we talked about transportation, all wonderful things about winter and everything we get to do during Christmas.
Some of my friends were confused during transportation week when I asked how they got to school that day. They looked at me with blank faces. After I showed them pictures they pointed to the car. They enjoyed painting with the cars and working together to make a track. When we talked about winter we talked about the appropriate gear we need to wear outside. We also got to play with fake snow using baking soda and conditioner.
We got to talk about Christmas for a week and a half! The kids really enjoyed making presents for their parents. We talked about decorations, presents and Santa.
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.
Can’t wait to see what the New Year brings us all!
Ms. Laura
2's III
Happy New Year from 2’s III!
I hope 2019 was a good year for you and that you are as excited as we are to see what 2020 will bring!
December was a fun month for 2’s III as we learned through play!
We started the month off by learning about textures, shapes and colors through the exploration of Gingerbread. From tasting ginger snaps to playing with homemade holiday spiced playdough and decorating a paper gingerbread man, we had many giggles with this theme.
From there we learned about winter and discussed the clothing that we need for the cold months and the order in which we put on our winter gear. We were able to practice putting on our snow pants, boots, jackets, hats and gloves independently. We use the “flip” method of putting on our jackets and the children take such pride in being able to get their gear on with little to no help.
After our winter theme, we worked on our fine motor and social skills and used all 5 of our senses as we explored Christmas! The children loved smelling holiday scents, talking about our favorite holiday foods (cookies had the majority vote!), listening for Christmas sounds, pretending to be Santa’s reindeer while playing movement games, and talking about our Christmas experiences. We also celebrated many birthdays this month with yummy treats!
We will be kicking off this year with New Years around the world.
We will continue to work on our social, motor and language skills and are looking forward to some snowy weather for winter games.
As always, please feel free to ask if you have any questions or concerns about your child or our activities. Also, let me know if you’re having any trouble with HiMama as I don’t want you to miss any info about the fun we are having while learning! Have a wonderful month!
Ms. Sara B & 2’s III
Toddler III
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2020!
What a great month we had last month preparing for Christmas.
We had a fabulous time playing with Christmas items and making Christmas crafts. We managed to go outside some too as the weather cooperated. Hopefully we’ll be able to get out even more this month.
In January we will be talking about snow and snowmen. Get Up and Move, Winter Animals and the Five Senses.
I will be on vacation for about a week, January 10th through the 18th. We also say Happy 2nd Birthday to Harrison on January 10th!
It will be a wonderful month with lots planned. Have a great January!
Ms. Marie
